University College Dublin (UCD) has won the 2017 Great Agri-Food Debate.UCD saw off the challenge of the Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) in the debate which took place at UCD’s Belfield campus on Wednesday.
University College Dublin (UCD) has won the 2017 Great Agri-Food Debate.
UCD saw off the challenge of the Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) in the debate which took place at UCD’s Belfield campus on Wednesday.
The motion up for debate was “Brexit will be good for the Irish Agri-Food Industry”.
UCD, who opposed the motion, were named eventual winners while UCD also took the prize for best speaker in the form of Una Sinnott.
WIT challenge
Eva Hayes from WIT said Brexit had given Ireland the shot in the arm it needed.
Her team mate Shane Burns contended that Britain is never going to be self-sufficient, and Tesco, Sainsbury’s and McDonald’s consumers in the UK only want produce familiar to the British consumer, saying “who else can supply that?”
Burns concluded his speech with: “When someone puts a gun to your head, you pull out a bigger one.” He received quite the reception from the crowd.
Eilish Lawlor, who was the next WIT speaker said it was easier to be pessimistic about things than optimistic and that we shouldn’t listen to the naysayers, while William Delaney made the closing remarks for the southeast college. His conclusion, in essence, was that we need to think outside the box for Brexit – we need new ideas. He said that the very graduates in the room needed to step up to the plate and offer their own ideas.
“A change, when managed properly, will be good for the agri-food industry,” he concluded.
UCD rebuttal
Patrick Hennessy was the opening speaker for UCD. He was quite a passionate powerful speaker and his sentiment can be summed up in one line from his speech: “If the UK sneezes, Ireland gets pneumonia.”
Una Sinnott followed Patrick for the UCD side. Una, who is a GAA star herself, used midfield imagery to describe her thoughts on Brexit. She contended Britain has left Ireland stranded the same way a midfielder would be stranded if their co-midfielder abandoned ship.
History lesson
When UCD’s Anthony Jordan took to the floor we were all given a history lesson, and a full debrief on the Troubles. Jordan focused on the impact of hard and soft borders both on the customs union and on political relations between Northern Ireland and the Republic. Anthony was very concerned about the 29 farms that have the border running through them. He wanted the proposing side to come out to the west of Ireland. On a final note, Anthony openly grieved for the loss of the UK saying Ireland has now lost its “best friend” and “big brother” in Europe.
UCD’s closing speaker, Niall Walsh took no prisoners when going after WIT.
“My team gave facts, your team gave fabrications,” he quipped.
Walsh said that while emerging markets were being built before Brexit, now the legs are now being taken from under us.
The debate was irreverent, fiery and fun. The rivalry between the two sides made for a very tense and thrilling encounter.
In the end, the judges gave the victory to the UCD team.
The judging panel was Niall Browne chief executive of Dawn Meats, Tara McCarthy CEO of Bord Bia and Adrian Crean, MD of McDonald’s Ireland. Dawn Meats sponsored the debate. Debate moderator was Justin McCarthy who is the editor of the Irish Farmers Journal.
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The 2016 Great Agri Food Debate
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